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Neuroscientists have created an artificial cerebellum
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Scientists have created an artificial cerebellum that can exchange signals with the brainstem. In an experiment, the mechanism successfully restored brain function in a laboratory rat.
The cerebellum is the part of the brain that receives information from the motor centers of the cerebral cortex and transmits it to the muscles. Through the feedback channel from the muscles, the cerebellum receives information about the tension and position of the body in space. By analyzing all the data, the cerebellum controls voluntary and automatic movements.
Project leader Matti Mintz (Tel Aviv University) analyzed the data that the brain transmits to the cerebellum and the information that the brain receives from the cerebellum. Based on the information obtained, the scientists constructed an electronic device on a chip that imitated the cerebellum, which was connected to the rat's brain using electrodes outside the skull. The animal's own cerebellum was destroyed.
Next, the scientists tried to form a conditioned reflex in the rat – blinking in response to sound. The researchers found that when the device simulating the cerebellum was turned off, the animal was unable to develop a reflex, but when it was turned on, it reacted in the same way as a healthy animal.
In the future, scientists plan to complicate the cerebellar connection algorithms.
Let us recall that Swiss engineers recently built a robot to transmit the effect of telepresence, control over which requires only a network of electrodes connected to the user's head.
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